[5] A notable campaigner for human rights throughout the developing world,[6] Brittain has contributed widely to many international publications, writing particularly on Africa, the US and the Middle East, and has also authored books and plays, including 2013's Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror.
"[7] Brittain has lived and worked in Saigon, Algiers, Nairobi, London and Washington, DC, and has reported from more than two dozen African countries, as well as the Middle East, particularly Palestine and Lebanon, and Cuba.
[8] In 1993, MI5 began a three-year surveillance operation (including phone-tapping and bugging her house) against Brittain as a total of £250,000 of money had arrived in her bank account, possibly laundered from Libyan sources.
[10] Her activist writings and work encompass plays – Guantanamo (Tricycle Theatre, 2004), with Gillian Slovo,[11] and The Meaning of Waiting (Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, 2010)[12] – and broadcasts on various media outlets.
[13] Books that she has written or edited include Moazzam Begg's co-authored work Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar (2006).